


Red

by Obvious Reactionary (Mysterious_Prophetess)



Series: Lab Rat [14]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith, Gen, alien keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 15:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8452456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterious_Prophetess/pseuds/Obvious%20Reactionary
Summary: On a neutral planet, Shiro finds a dead man and understands the phrase "seeing Red" all the better now.





	

_Matt Holt still couldn’t get over how much Katie had changed. At times, it was like looking at a creepy younger mirror as Katie masqueraded as “Pidge.” Yet, he had to admit being impressed by the skills his little sister displayed with alien tech. Skills he wished he’d had. Perhaps he and his father could have escaped sooner. It was also a huge shock to see that little Katie was now one of the feared paladins of Voltron alongside Shiro.There were a few holo-pictures of the paladins that Allura and Coran (the last two Alteans in the universe: that was mind boggling) had taken of the completed Paladins of Voltron. The first few pictures featured a guy with Asian like features and purple eyes. Then, in photos dated just before his rescue, this guy was replaced by a Galra version of the same guy. He had sort of cat like ears like other galra officers but a darker patch of hair like a mane.The Galra image clicked with an image he’d seen before and Matt realized this was the missing paladin: Keith. Why had he looked human before? Matt shook his head, it didn’t matter. Finding a way to get him back was the important part. Without him, Katie and the others couldn’t form Voltron and without Voltron, they had no hope in Hell in stopping the Galra Empire._

————————————————————————— ————————————

_“And we—.”_

_“Lance, dressing up and doing the hula is_ **_not_ ** _a good way to sneak into the heart of the Galra Empire,” Shiro said. Lance comically deflated and Hunk laughed a little._

_“It’s been two weeks and we’ve yet come up with any sort of plan to get Keith back,” Pidge said fixing their glasses. The other three paladins shrugged in unison._

_“Without Keith we can’t form Voltron and there goes our biggest asset,” Lance said, “And even if we could form Voltron, Zarkon could break us up and we’d still be screwed.”_

_“Why not wait for him to venture out on his own?” The paladins turned to see Sam Holt had entered the room, “From what I saw in my captivity, the children of Zarkon are often venturing into space far from the Galra core, and when your friend is far from his grandfather and the center of the Empire, rescue him then.”_

_“There’s also the fact he has no memories of us,” Hunk said, “I don’t know about you guys, but Keith’s a flier that I really wouldn’t want to take on in a ship-to-ship fight.”_

_“I could handle him,” Lance and Shiro said in unison._

_“We’re going to need intel,” Pidge said, “That means hacking into more secure networks and getting to those networks to hack them. Any ideas on how to do that?”_

—————————————————— —————————————————————————

Team Voltron plus the Rescued Holts, landed on a neutral planet after doing what they could to fight off Galra in local systems. Shiro passed a merchant and stopped. Those blades….He took a closer look at the merchant and his jaw dropped. If Keith hadn’t been altered, this would be what he’d look like in about twenty or thirty years. He’d also seen this man’s face once, in a crinkled photograph years and years ago. A man he had been told was dead.

“See something you like, Champion?” the man asked in English. Shiro snapped out of it and replied in Japanese,

“ _What the hell are you doing here_? ”The man looked taken a back.

“ _Have we met_? ” the man replied in the same language.

“ _Why the hell did you leave Earth_?” Shiro demanded.

The other paladins had joined him and were confused by the Black Paladin’s sudden decision to yell in _Japanese_ at a space man. They were shocked when the space man yelled _back_ in the **same language**.

“ _The Galra had arrived and my mother’s people had already lost their home world to those demons once before_ ,” he said.

“ _That only happened within the last year. Where the Hell have you been for the last eleven years_!” Shiro said.

“ _What right have you to demand that_?” the man said getting angry.

“ _I was Keith’s foster brother before I joined the garrison_!”Shiro snapped, “ _You look good for a dead man,_ Ji-hun Kogane.”

“ _You lie! My son died when he was six in that car accident_!”Ji-hun yelled standing up and shouting in Shiro’s face.

“ _Bullshit! He was told_ ** _you_** _were the one dead_! ” Shiro yelled back.

“ _What proof do I even have that you’re not lying to me, Champion_?”Ji-hun asked

 

“Shiro, why are you yelling at an older looking less purple version of Keith in Japanese?” Lance asked in English. Ji-hun Kogane looked over at Lance.

“Say that again?”

“I asked Shiro why he was yelling at you and that you look like an older less-purple version of Keith,” Lance said.

“ ** _That fucking lying son of a bitch_** ** _!_** ” Ji-hun snarled, this time in Korean. Shiro’s eyebrow rose. Keith had taught him more than a few Korean swear words whenever the Shiroganes were fostering Keith.

“Who lied?” Shiro asked. Ji-hun turned to another Iyurian who had arrived. An older Iyurian who did have some features in common with Ji-hun.

“Tell me, Uncle, was my son dead whenever you pulled me from that car?” Ji-hun asked. The Iyurian looked up at the other man,

“Asking me about it again doesn’t bring back the dead,” he said.

“ **ERRRRRHHHHG**! Wrong answer!” Lance said. The Iyurian finally took in the fact the Paladins of Voltron were present.

“That was no child in the vehicle with you. It was a monster,” the man said his face setting into a hard line.

“No. You are.” Everyone turned to see the usually happy Hunk was now a dark tower of rage. “You left a kid in a wrecked car to die and lied to his father.” Ji-hun took a breath before he punched out his Uncle.

“Where is my son?”

“You’d better come with us,” Allura said after the paladins and Alteans exchanged looks.

——————————————————————— ——————————

Pidge pulled up a picture of Pre-Galra Keith with the group for Ji-hun to see.

“He does look like me,” Ji-hun said.

“He still does, mostly, but…,” Pidge then progressed to a more recent picture.

“How did that happen?” Ji-hun asked gesturing to the more Galran appearance.

“A psychotic Druid,” Shiro said flatly.

“Is there any other kind?” Matt and Sam Holt had joined the group at the laptop.

“Dad, this is Keith’s father,” Pidge said as they pulled up the saved information about the Imperial family.

“Pleasure to meet you Mr. Kogane,” Sam said, “This is my son Matt and you’ve met Katie.”

“Katie?” Ji-hun said.

“Pidge,” Lance said, “Don’t feel bad, we didn’t know Pidge was a girl until we were told.”

“Don’t lump me in with the rest of you,” Shiro said.

“Twyla isn’t married, by the way,” Pidge said pointing to the image of Twyla in the children line up. Ji-hun seemed to file this information away.

“Did you know she was—.” Lance began.

“I knew who her father was ever since I saw her dagger,” Ji-hun said, “Why is Keith listed under _that_ name?”

“They kidnapped him and best we can tell, they’ve wiped his memories,” Allura said.

“And “Keith” isn’t a very Galra name,” Coran said.

“No it isn’t. Twyla **_hated_** it,” Ji-hun said, “Begged me to consider her choice or even “Akira” instead. I talked her into agreeing with me in the end. What’s the plan?”

“We need to wait for him to be in a more exposed part of the empire, but that could be years,” Shiro said, “Without him, we can’t form Voltron—.”

“ _The_ Voltron?” Ji-hun asked. Allura nodded.

“Keith’s the Red Paladin,” she said, “And while we still have the lion, we need him.”

——————————————————————— ———————————————

Ji-hun knew this was a move more worthy of Twyla than him, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He found the Red Lion sitting with its particle barrier up, and it looked like it was…. _moping_. If half of what he’d heard from the other paladins was correct...

“Hey!” he said. It looked at him. He would have be impressed by its programming had it not been for the fact its quintessence felt _alive_ : Not “its,” _her_.

“Do you want your paladin back?” he asked her, “Then let’s make a deal. You let me pilot you and I’ll help them return him to you. Do we have a deal?” Ji-hun didn’t back down or show any weakness, but he knew that unless this lion would fly for someone else, they were forced to try to wait for Keith to in an exposed position and that was time Team Voltron, and the universe for that matter, didn’t have.With a Roar and nudge in his mind, the Red Lion agreed.

“Let’s get our cub back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to our regularly scheduled timeline.
> 
> Ji-hun Kogane: AKA Keith's Father.
> 
> Half-Iyuran, Half-human. His father was Korean, but died when he was young so his mother, an Iyurian survivor, remarried a Japanese-American named Akira "Keith" Kogane.


End file.
